Your domain is the foundation of your online identity. Whether you’re starting a blog, newsletter, or personal site, getting the domain name right can save you time, money, and hassle later on.

Here's a straightforward guide to choosing a name, buying it, and managing it - without overcomplicating things.

Choosing the Right Domain Name

Your first big step. Generally, a good domain should be:

  • Simple
  • Memorable
  • Relevant to your publication

Some quick tips:

  • Keep it short: Avoid long or complex words.
  • Reflect your content or brand: If you already have a name for the blog, it should contain it.
  • Don’t overthink: You can always rebrand later.
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Pro tip: Don't be afraid to use your real name. People trust people. A personal domain like yourname.com is perfect for blogging, or just playing around. But don't underestimate it, since writers such as James Clear built publications with millions of active readers using their real name.

Buy Your Domain

Buying a domain is easier than ever, which sometimes means your ideal domain name may be taken. No worries, get creative!

  • Get creative with endings (or TLDs - fancy for top level domain). Try .co, .io, .ai etc. if .com is already taken. If your publication is a newsletter, try .email. If it's a blog, just try .blog. If it's in your native language, try your country's TLD. Anything works! Your visitors will remember the unconventional ending or format and find it refreshing.
  • Modify the name slightly. For example, Revue, a now deprecated editorial newsletter tool, used getrevue.co. Why shouldn't you?

And where to buy? There's a flood of websites out there.

  • Cloudflare – My current recommendation. Transparent pricing, no upsells.
  • Namecheap – A solid, beginner-friendly option I’ve used in the past.
  • Avoid GoDaddy – Too many upsells and renewal surprises. All that ad budget needs to come from somewhere...
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Pro tip: Use Cloudflare if you plan to use their performance tools anyway. One less account to manage..
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Pro tip: Always check renewal pricing. A .co might cost $5 the first year and $25+ later.

Don't buy anything extra. You don't need an SSL certificate, as you can usually get one for free from Let's Encrypt. You also don't need hosting by your domain registrar, since it will not work with Ghost.

The only thing you might consider is a business email, but you can easily get it for free with Zoho. You can of course use Google. Even Apple offers custom domain email as part of their iCloud subscription.

Manage Your Domain

Once you've bought your domain, you'll need to manage it using DNS records. These are basically instructions that tell the internet where to send traffic. In other words, you connect an IP address to your domain.

Usually, every service you use (hosting, email etc.), has instructions on how to set up your DNS records to work properly. The only thing you need to do right now is to get a little familiar with it.

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Pro tip: Cloudflare’s CDN (content delivery network) can make your site even faster. Even without moving your domain, you can point DNS to them and use caching features.

Summary

  1. Choose a domain name that's short, simple, and reflective of your brand. Most importantly, don't complicate and lose too much time with it.
  2. Use Cloudflare or Namecheap to buy it. Spend as little as possible, don't buy anything extra.
  3. Consider setting up a business email.
  4. Get familiar with DNS management.